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22/11/2008

Information. The stuff graphics are made of

Information is the essence of the graphic. As I think I’ve already said here, is the screenplay of the movie. There’s no good graphic without good information, but a bad graphic can spoil a very good information.Sometimes, the simpliest graphic works because it’s made with very good data.

Público (Spain)Translation: Some of the most expensive liquids you can buy:Inkjet for printers: 4.000€/lChanel nº5: 1.300 €/lDOM Perignon: 400 €/lVega Sicilia: 200 €/l

National Geographic. Ways to go.

You can be exotic or plain. It doesn’t matter. The fact is important enough by itself.

Sometimes, we are the ones who have to look for the data hidden in the facts. The pearl inside the oyster. A perfect example of this can be seen these days on the always interesting blog Strangemaps, which shows an original overlay by Allen Gathman.The first one is the map of the presidencial election results by counties in the southeast of the USA: Kansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida. All those with a high percentage of black population because of the slavery in the past. The second one is a map of the cotton production in the past in the same zone when black people worked as slaves at the plantations.

And this are both, overlayed.

The key for the elections results on the zone at a glance. A (hi)story explained visually. Data that can cach the reader better than the most spectacular illustration. Because we’re doing newspapers. And newspapers are, esentially, information.